Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Self-control”
Our Bible verse for today: “The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it too.” Genesis 3:6 (NLT)
Our thought for today: “Lack of self-control leads to sin.”
“It was the woman’s fault! It’s always the woman’s fault!” So men have said down through the ages. And, at first glance, it does appear that the debacle in the Garden of Eden was Eve’s fault. She was the one who got into a conversation with the serpent (the devil in disguise); she was the one who was deceived; she was the one who took the fruit and ate it; and she was the one who gave it to Adam and told him to eat some too.
But wait, in Genesis 2:15 we read that it was Adam who was told by God that he was forbidden from eating the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Eve hadn’t even been created at that time. And there’s no record that God ever repeated those words directly to Eve. It was Adam who had received the instructions from God; it was Adam who was responsible for telling it to Eve; and, as verse 3:6 tells us, as Eve was in the process of being tricked by the devil into eating the forbidden fruit, Adam was standing right there watching and listening and he did nothing to prevent it from happening. He even joined in and took a bite himself.
Why would Adam and Eve have done that? The Garden of Eden was filled to overflowing with all the food they could possibly want. They were free to eat it all, and as much as they wanted. All that is, except the fruit from this one tree.
And that’s where human nature entered the picture. We want the thing that we can’t have. It doesn’t matter what we do have, we want the thing we have been told we can’t have. Satan knows that and Satan works to exploit it.
That’s where the spiritual discipline of self-control comes in. God has given us free will that allows us to make choices. Therefore we can choose to obey Him or not. When we make the effort to resist temptation, restrain our impulses, and control ourselves to obey Him, we have honored Him with our choice. But it is a choice, and it does require effort, and it is a matter of self-control.
There’s no question that you can do it. The Apostle Paul assured us of that in 1 Corinthians 10:13 when he wrote, “The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure it.”
If you make-up your mind to exercise self-control so you can resist temptation, the Holy Spirit will help you to do it. If you don’t exercise self-control, and therefore give-in to temptation, there will be a price to pay. There always is. Read Adam and Eve’s story. We will talk much more about the consequences of a lack of self-control in the days to come.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 